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During his State of the Union address Jan. 20, President Obama emphasized the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math or STEM, to maintaining a strong and competitive American economy. On hand as an invited guest, was NASA astronaut Scott Kelly who is preparing to take part in the first ever one-year mission aboard the International Space Station – to investigate how the human body responds to longer durations in space. The President acknowledged how this and other NASA research and technology efforts is preparing us for deep space travel, while also returning benefits to humanity. Also, 2015 Spinoff publication, Virtual walk on Mars, Dawn images of Ceres and more!

The Mars Opportunity rover has driven 25.9 miles (41.7 kilometers) since it landed in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars on Jan. 25, 2004 (Universal Time, which was Jan. 24, PST). That is farther than any other off-Earth surface vehicle has driven. The rover's work on Mars was initially planned for three months. During that prime mission and for more than a decade of bonus performance in extended missions, Opportunity has returned compelling evidence about wet environments on ancient Mars.

Peering into the thousands of frozen layers inside Greenland’s ice sheet is like looking back in time. Each layer provides a record of not only snowfall and melting events, but what the Earth’s climate was like at the dawn of civilization, or during the last ice age, or during an ancient period of warmth similar to the one we are experiencing today. Using radar data from NASA’s Operation IceBridge, scientists have built the first-ever comprehensive map of the layers deep inside the ice sheet.

Roger Rovekamp is a Robotics Engineer in Dexterous Robotics Laboratory at NASA Johnson Space Center.